Virgin Galactic completes first fully crewed test spaceflight (3)

Photo released by Virgin Galactic on July 1, 2021 shows Virgin Galactic "Unity 22" crew (from L to R) chief pilot Dave Mackay, lead operations engineer Colin Bennett, chief astronaut instructor Beth Moses, founder of Virgin Galactic Richard Branson, vice president of government affairs and research operations Sirisha Bandla, and pilot Michael Masucci, posing for a photo in the United States. Space tourism company Virgin Galactic completed its first fully crewed test flight of its spacecraft on Sunday, making a giant leap toward commercial suborbital spaceflight. The mission, dubbed "Unity 22," was the company's fourth crewed spaceflight, and the 22nd flight test for the company's spacecraft VSS Unity. The crew took off from the company's homeport of Spaceport America in U.S. state of New Mexico Sunday morning. (Virgin Galactic/Handout via Xinhua)